It was Janie's past lives that transformed The Artist's Mark and created the series The Mark of Abel. I needed a villain to continually murder her throughout history, so I could talk about different massacres and so Luke would have to find her before it was too late. Enter the Grigori and Cain and Abel. It naturally followed their mother should also be there.

Janie's deaths occur throughout time and all over the world. Even though The Mark of Abelrelies heavily on Judeo-Christian stories, I wanted the ultimate story to be global. Future books will incorporate other religions and mythology. There is a reason Demeter and the Mycenaeans are mentioned.

I loved researching the various massacres, the more obscure the better. I spent days on-line doing research and hunting down primary sources. I didn't want to be like The DaVinci Code, where there were tons of shows debunking it.

Where possible during flashbacks and dreams, Janie speaks the language. she would have for that life. I used eight languages: English, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Japanese, French, and Coptic. The two most difficult to find were Aramaic (it has subtle variations from Hebrew and Maggie would have spoken it) and Coptic (Valentinus', leader of the Gnostics, language). Since Grigori is Greek for Watchers, I decided to pepper their dialogue with it. Sometimes it took an hour to find the translation for one word and verify it, but I loved every minute.